Zom-B Bride
Zom-B Clans is the tenth installment in the Zom-B series. Background The tenth terrifying installment from master of horror, Darren Shan. Does true love lurk in the darkest of places? Could a psychotic stalker be the man of your dreams? Can a killer win your heart? Here comes the bride ... Story The babies are carrying B along and as they do this they connect to her mind and echo back some of the things she thinks about. From the sewers they carry through the subway and then after removing a panel somewhere through a maze of recently dug tunnels. The come to a green door with eyes pinned on it, they talk through an intercom and after giving the password they are let in by one of the mutants. Dowling’s underground lair is filled with all kinds of circus attributes and many different human parts and full blown humans both living and corpses, she is stripped naked. Then she is carried through the entire huge and strange lair and eventually Kinslow and Dowling come in and strip naked as well. Dowling hugs her and they enter a hearse. They seat reclines and eventually all becomes even, like a bed. The seats then spilt open and they fall into a vat of liquid. She tastes it and knows it is blood. While in the bloodbath which is similar to the Groove Tubes, she sees the walls are decorated with photographs of both her and Mr. Dowling. She asks why she is so special, but doesn’t get any answers. But it is time to put her back together. They take her to a dentist chair and convince her to sit down on it and be cuffed so it will be easier to help her. Dowling starts patching her up with zombie parts and machinery. She gets new ribs, finger bones, elf ears, special contact lenses, fake fangs and a crown. They then finish things up with electricity. She regains consciousness or something close to it and share her fist conversation with Dowling and sees some of his memories. He tells her the reason why he helped her and kept taps on her is because he loves her, she has only seen him at his worst. He wants to wed her so they can take care of the children. He also tells her he will grant her full access to his mind once she accepts him. She wakes up and not can communicate with Dowling freely and he takes her around his lair. She is shown a lab, nursery and a classroom where her former principal Mrs Reed is teaching. She knew what was coming and committed herself to Dowling’s cause before it did, she also pretended to be a racist in order to get close to her and her father for she was send there to observe her. She continues with her lessons teaching them B is for Becky Smith, they all start calling Mommy out to her. B has had enough she tells them their not theirs, then Owl Man shows and says they are. He then explains they are far more advanced mutants then Kinslow and Mrs Reed. They were cloned as they are and not humans like all the others were. Owl Man reveals that all three of them, Owl Man, Oystein and Dowling used to work together. Dowling was always more interested in the mutant gene then the zombie virus. They came up with the babies together, but after their schism it took Dowling years to return to them. He stole some of the vaccines but could not make it world so he started using the blood of those who had the vaccine in their system. They also don’t know why some revitalize and others don’t but they did found blood that worked. If he shared it with Oystein he might have found a way to predetermine who would revive, but Dowling didn’t. Six children’s blood worked all of them were visited and a feisty girl was chosen as the mother of all the children. She is their mother and she dreamt about them because the telepathic link they share. Dowling tells her he loves her but she rejects him, wanting nothing to do with him. The babies grab she thinks he means to torture her but he means to woo her. She is carried to Dowling personal quarters and Owl Man ex[plains Dowling is a being who lost his rationality and in an insane world all he can do is act insane. Owl Man leaves to find Rage and his dog Sakarias. As Owl man leaves, Dowling presses his electric wand to her temple. She sees more of his memories, but times are all jumbled up together, he is obviously from the past but modern things are mixed up within his memories. Coming to she is brought back to soak In the bloodbath again. She tries to find a hidden exit but after finding none she decides to stay, play the game and maybe find out where they keep the Schlesinger-10. He keeps sharing his memories with her over the following days but he lets her see his normal life and her current life but nothing of the connecting tissue or which has to do with Oystein and Owl Man. She is allowed to leave their quarters now and then and learn the babies can go months without food, don’t eat brains and sweat out their waste products. She calls the one with the hole in it Hole Moly and notes it is different from the others. She discuss them with Mrs. Reed and learns they will become smarter as they mature in seventy years they will reach adolescence and full adulthood will come forty to fifty years after that. She explains she joined Dowling for the chance to create a better future a better species to rule over the earth. For Dowling and all of them will all pass away but the babies will grow up and remain. She is slowly growing stronger over the days and then one day Kinslow brings her to Dowling’s zoo. She then asks Kinslow how he ended up with Dowling, he explains he was always somewhat deranged then one day he killed his wife and ended up in an asylum, Dowling attacked the asylum and made him realize he had been suppressing his true self all his life. He believe that Mother Nature deemed this to be the time of the killers and tells B that Dowling saw a bit of himself in her. Dowling returns shocks her and she asks him what he wants to the world, but all he tells is that he doesn’t want a dull world, she tells them she needs more than that and he reveals to her that his name is Albrecht. He explains that this world has become an immense valley of death and he decided to become the personification of feat itself in order not to fear anything and he needs war he needs zombies, soldier and racists fighting with each other. And when he is done, their babies will take over the world. B wants to make a deal with him, if he helps Oystein get rid of the zombies she will be his. He refuses but the go back and forth now that Dowling knows he can make a deal, he then settles on trying to stop killing people. The deal is made and they wake up and he tells Kinslow to prepare for the wedding. The mutants don’t trust her as they and Dowling prepare for the wedding, he has them bring art in for he knew B has taking a liking to it. She shares a laugh with Mrs Reed after talking about wedding dresses and she is actually happy with this development. When he brings her, her dress he tells her they will hold the wedding right now. The wedding starts and to her surprise Rage, Owl Man and his dog are there. They exchange words and Owl man decides to guide her to the altar. Dowling is waiting for her and Kinslow conducts the proceedings for the couple is not religious and they killed all the civil servants. He proceeds with over the top vows for Dowling and overly simplistic ones for B. He then declares them Clown and Zombie. Husband and Wife. Dowling then kisses her and leaves a slug in her mouth. She lets it slide and their married life begins. He takes her to a tiny room where a bed is said up but luckily he only wants to share mind then he speaks to her saying “You are my hope.” He shocks her with the wand and opens his entire mind to her and it automatically goes after the location of Schlesinger-10. Once she finds it she tries to pull back to her body but the clown is doing the same, she wakes up with his hands around her throat she fights him off and manages to zap him with the wand, as she is about to finish him off the babies burst in angry. They fight her and when she thinks it is over Holy Moly comes to her defense and this confuses the babies. They calm down she tells them she will be back and to let daddy rest, she then goes after the vial despite her numerous injuries. She is actually sorry about how things ended, she closes the door and makes her way through the network of underground chambers. She knows she needs to get out before her beloved regains his senses. Table of Chapters Table of Characters Editions Trivia See Also References Navigation